Phoenix EisenbergSaturday was a day of closed stores, empty streets, and shortages of D batteries, but one movie theater kept its doors open. At 22 East 12th Street stands Cinema Village, a charming three-screen arthouse theater built in 1963. The marquee (a throwback to an era of cinema that has come close to extinction) was free of letters on Saturday, but inside were two committed cinephiles, Genevieve Havemeyer and Matthew Reichard, who braved the storm on their bicycles so that customers could see movies like “Mozart’s Sister,” a French film that imagines Maria Anna Mozart’s friendship with the children of Louis XV.
At the concession stand, a paper towel wrapped around the tip jar read “‘Come on Irene’: Hurricane Survival Fund.”
Phoenix EisenbergA manager at the theater, Hassan Rao, told The Local that the theater closed around 8 p.m. on Saturday. The next day, it was open from 12:30 p.m. till 8 p.m. (Mr. Reichard opted to take a taxi on Sunday.) “We decided to close on Sunday because of heavy rains, but luckily there was no hard rain,” said Mr. Rao. Nevertheless, crowds were light— Mr. Rao said that only fifty or sixty customers settled in.
